Pages

Friday, August 14, 2009

From Plato to Hedwig ...

Yeap, I did finally watch it. And I did like it. Hedwig and the Angry inch has one more fan now, if you'd like to put it this way. It's true that I'm a lousy fan- I rarely buy tickets to concerts and t-shirts:almost never. But I heard there is a cult in some parts of Europe and in the US as well, so it won't miss much because of my lack of fan-like behavior.

But I had to write about it. It is on of those movies I hesitated to watch [1]- Hedwig, the drag , on the cover made me fear something a little cliche such as Victor/Victoria without the charm of Julie Andrews. To my surprise it does go deeper than that, and to my surprise it offered an interesting view on Plato's Symposium. Not only that song about the origin of love being inspired by Aristophanes' myth. Love is also presented as creation, or did you miss that point in Plato, as well as above and beyond gender and sex [2].

Hedwig also raised some interesting questions about being a drag and the relation between hair and identity, and I have to admit I never thought to much about this relationship before. But now I get it: why do orthodox Jewish women wear wigs and covering one's head has such a symbolic value. This movie was my a-ha moment, and I do tend to favor movies that are the cause of my a-ha moments even if not that popular.

Than I feared that too much symbolism is going to spoil it. As someone said -that it will be just another one of those cheap, independent flicks with great pretenses. But it does stay entertaining.One does not need to care much about Plato to enjoy the movie. There is good music and quite a touchy love story. And, in my opinion, Hedwig is very well played by John Cameron Mitchell. Of course I am no movie critique.

And since I am no movie critique I was not sure I am going to post about this movie until...I was walking from the bus stop to my job, thinking about an e-mail I was planning to write my friend about the movie when I crossed path in , three times, with this man, a transvestite , wearing a Hedwig wig. Now I'd been working here for three years now and I never seen him before, and I hadn't seen him since...Strange,isn't it?

[1] I do not recommend the movie to anyone that has issues with man kissing man or transvestites.[2]"you were more than a man, more than a woman" form small wicked town, Tommy Gnosis version.